"A dagger?" Rumpel parroted confusedly, his voice a tangled mass of dubiousness and fear. Incredulity marred his features as he looked at the sodden Silver. "This whole thing is about a mere weapon?"
For the first time he belatedly saw a flaw in his well constructed plans. Things had played out perfectly save for one overlooked detail. Silver was so drunk, who knew if he was telling the truth or set to ramble and brag and tell tales like any pirate would? Would the story be true or simply some popular yarn told by sleepy brigands in the large cook's current constitution?
Could he truly rely upon his information?
Hiccupping luridly, the cook nodded sloven accretion to his words, his chin nearly touching his wine stained, filthy shirt with every bob of his head. "Ye heard me right - a dagger." Placing his elbows on the table, he held out both his plump index fingers to give some invisible measurement and closed an eye as though to help him focus. "The darlin' thing is about oh this big, but hark and make no mistake lad, this dagger is no simple weapon now. No, no, this here dagger is magic," he uttered the last word like some awe inspiring mystical spell.
"Loot then," the spinner afforded a guess, his voice barely hiding his disappointment. He cast his face sadly to the torn coat that had not been illuminated with answers. "Belle is only after magical loot."
To say he was relieved that he had found at last the truth, or at least a portion, to the entire thing wasn't exactly accurate. He was of course relived to know what they were after and in truth that could have very well been why the crew acted so strange. Pirates were notorious for being superstitious, but that didn't explain everything.
Perhaps, he wondered dourly, he was looking at another dead end.
Slowly Silver shook his head, his voice dropping down to a deathly whisper. "Not just any loot. Oh no we don't mean to sell this there beauty by any means once we find 'er. We've got to many plans for that! Ye see Rumble Bumble this dagger…," he paused and looked around as though some pirate had snuck in or perhaps the master of the ship herself stood behind him before he turned back to Rumpel. His lips curved into an excited, drunk grin. "This here dagger is not just any magic. The magic dagger grants wishes!"
"Wishes?" The cripple's brow beetled into thin, sharp lines of inquisitiveness. Now that was of worth to note, and yet, infuriatingly only dredged up more questions. What would someone like Belle need a wishing dagger for? "You're saying she's going to search for a dagger after we go to this feast?"
"Ye act like she just up and decided to start searching' for the lovely thing on a whim," Silver grunted and placed his hands down. His breath was potent enough to kill flies in the air as he leaned closer to the dubious spinner. "This has been a quest that's gone back years; many… many years. Ye see lad, this dagger we're searching' for is not so easily found. The way to the fabled blade is riddled with enough traps to kill an entire kingdom! If ye knew half the horrors that awaited us there ye'd be shakin' till your knees knocked out O' their sockets and run off on ye," he explained in hyperbolic but deadly seriousness.
The place they were headed was strewn with enough dangers to kill them all in the most terrible ways possible. What they sought was of no little magic and equally as protected because of that fact.
Such a terrible place, Rumpel pondered inwardly, letting Silver's dour telling of the place sink in. Why would anyone wish to go there then? Surely the pirates would be more than happy to keep sustaining themselves with their vile deeds and a wise captain like Belle instead of risking their lives. Why would they go for the dagger then if-? "The crew doesn't know.…" Rumbled concluded frozenly, his blood filling with terror.
What if the crew had no clue what their captain had in mind? What if Belle's intentions would sending them all to their deaths on a mad hunt for such power?
"That's where ye're wrong," checked the red cheeked cook. "They all be knowin'. Belle recruited them because they know and they want their wishes."
Confusion roiled and bubbled over the spinner again with the ready admittance. Frustration poked his frail heart rousing the rarely awoken anger there. Raking a calloused hand roughly through his dirty brown hair, he looked away into the darkness that had waxed about them. The embers had died leaving the shadows lengthened upon their forms just as the questions lengthened upon his thoughts.
"This doesn't make sense," sighed the irked spinner. "Why would they do this? If what you say is true they'd be risking their lives for things they already have. The cargo is full of spoils and treasures enough for everyone aboard and more. What more do they possibly need?"
Was their greed so vast, their hunger for power so gluttonously insatiable, they would all risk demise? Were they all mad!
"What riches can't give 'em back," Silver revealed sorrowfully, his voice as glum and melancholy as the spinner had ever heard.
Taken aback by the sorrowful tone, so desperate from the usually jovial cook, the captive caught himself. His ire sloughed away like melted wax from his burning heart, replaced with a sudden pang of pity for the killer. Slowly, he turned back to face the corpulent cook.
The round man had turned from a secret confider into a mass of utter misery. Tears glistened un-shed in his piggish eyes. His body seemed to want to melt into the floor with the burdened that weighed on him. To Rumpel he looked suddenly older than the waters they rode.
Looking up with dour eyes, the cook sniffed tearfully. Rubbing his red tipped nose with the back of his dirty sleeve, he gulped back his pain. "All of us here have suffered a loss not all the treasure in all the world could give us back. No amount of gold or gem could soothe the ache scored so deep in us. Ariel… she was a mermaid… until she made a terrible bargain that lost her her legs and the man she loved lost to her somewhere out in the great wide world. Robin… he lost his wife but he found another who might share his affections. All he wants is a chance to prove his love so he, the woman he loves, and his son can be a family. Jefferson… poor lad. Lost his little girl. To where no man knows, but he vowed to get her back. All of us have suffered like that in some way. Ye see lad, the dagger can give us back all that we lost that gold can't replace. That's why we're headed after the precious thing. We've had to roam to find clues, collect supplies all for this dagger to grant us each a wish."
Rumpel remained still as stone as he absorbed the heart-breaking words. That was one part of the mystery solved. At least that explained the longing, the forbearance, and the absolute misery of some when they thought no one was looking.
They were on quests to mend shattered hearts.
"What about you, Silver?" the spinner inquired suddenly, moved to compassion for the old sea dog. "What do you want of this dagger?"
"What do ye think, lad!" He grabbed his thigh and thumped his injured leg out. Awkwardly he stretched the partially wooden limb free from the bench so that the wooden appendage sat on the edge. The peg leg was an ugly, half rotted thing in the ever dimming light. Bound tight at the knee, the wooden stump must have pained him every time he took a step. "I want to be free of this weakness. Too long I've spent like this. Too long. Do you know what it's like to lose a part of ye? Knowing ye can never go back, forever stuck and then… ye got a chance to let it all go?"
Wiping his red rimmed eyes with a thumb, the cook sniffed to reign in his emotions. "That's why we're here, lad. An thanks be, but we're close to the end of this quest. After this feast tis naught but sailing there, not dyin', and makin' good our wishes to stitch up these wounded hearts of ours."
Staring hard, a though caught nervously, in the spinner's mind. He knew he had no right to think of the matter, but the thought tiptoed in just the same. Lifting his head hopefully, the cripple dared another inquiry. "Do... do you think Belle would let me have a wish?"
Oh if he had a wish! His heart raced at the thought. No longer would he be a cripple. He would use the wish to let him walk properly again. If his son was granted a wish then they could be free and do whatever they pleased!
"No," Silver reveled flatly, crushing the tenuous ember of hope that had so suddenly brightened in the spinners heart.
Face falling, the spinner nearly felt his heart wrench in the darkness. "Why?" Had she already decided on the matter?
"Belle will have no use for ye after," he huffed liberally before his face softened in drunk pity. "I know this be a mite hard to hear, lad, but tis the truth. No one knows why she brought ye along," he lied. "We panned to disband the crew after we got our wishes. More than like she'll probably get to the feast and find the highest bidder to sell ye and the lad to and deliver ye both to them if we ever come back alive," he explained then yawned sleepily and stretched his arms.
Rumpel sputtered disbelievingly. "How can she…? I'd even give her my wish if she did not sell us."
Truly there could not be anything as terrible as that!
"Tis not use Rumpel Bumble. She only wants the thing she doesn't have." He shook his head. "She doesn't care about anything or anyone else."
Eyes darting frantically about as though some answer lay hidden there in his words, the spinner tried to rack his brain for any foothold. "Then I'll make her care about something. What is it she doesn't have? Maybe I can help her."
"She's not told a soul." Silver leaned forward. Head dipping lower and lower, his drunken doze slowly overtook him. Snorting and sniffling he laid his head on his hairy arms and with a last burp fell into a soundless sleep.
Staring at the sleeping cook, disbelief crossed the cripple's features. The one thing that could perhaps help him and his son not meet such an erroneous fate and whatever she had lost she told no one. Desperately, Rumpel clawed through his clues to find some link. What was so terrible to drive her on the long quest and how could he use that to make sure that he and his son were not s-
And all at once the pieces fit. The coat, the iciness, the uncaring all came together in one picture full and clear before his eyes. So simple now seemed the matter that if not for his fear he would have laughed that he had not see the truth sooner.
Rising silently, the spinner limped as if in a daze out of the galley leaving a drunken Silver to sleep off the wine.
Mutely he trekked under the dark sky to the cabin and knocked loudly on the door. For a moment in his revelation there was no timidity to fill his actions. He knew now and though he felt wary for his well being, he felt his heart ache for her, for now he understood.
Without backing away, without a hint of trepidation, the spinner stood there until the door opened. The dim light glowed sharply around the beauty as she opened the portal to the dimness.
Dressed as she normally was in her seafarers wear, the fact was obvious she had been far from sleep. Perhaps, like him, she too had been plagued with too many questions to find any repose.
Silently, the pair stared at one another. No word uttered betwixt them, but their eyes told the conversation that rippled like pebbles thrown in the pond of their hearts.
"This talk was coming wasn't it?" Belle deadpanned at last, severing the silent words that flew betwixt them.
Rumpel bobbed his head humbly. "Yes."
Indeed they had sorely needed to express something lest they both go mad with pondering and wonder. There were too many questions bared upon their heart, too many things to be acknowledged rather than disregarded.
Backing away from the door, the beauty held her arm out to the warm cabin. "Very well," her lovely voice was soft but brisk. "Come on before you let the cold in."
Stumbling inside, the spinner drew up his courage. His hands rubbed together nervously in clammy wariness as he tried to score up what to say. Clutching his staff close as though the limb were a shield to bar heart and body, he turned, his breath hitched, as he prepared to send out his words in a flooding torrent. "Captain-"
"The kiss was foolish of me to do, I know," Belle broke in steadily, unable to stand there and say nothing in the face of the man. Nervousness swam under the very surface of her calm, nearly breaking way for the anxiousness she felt beneath. "I don't know why I did such a thing. I did not want to make you feel uncomfortable which I undoubtedly have."
Stoically centering herself, she looked into his chestnut eyes. Her face was a strict mask that barely revealed what lay beneath. "I shouldn't have kissed you. It was a mistake and I'm sorry."
Dark brown eyes searching her lustrous indigo depths, the spinner marveled at what he saw. He had always had a knack for discerning what lay below and the moment there, with her, was no different. Given he could have refused to acknowledge what lay there. Indeed, he could have very well tried to use that guilt she had tucked away as a means for trying to lure her into giving them their safety, but he couldn't. For all the world he couldn't.
Slowly tossing his head the spinner felt his words replaced with the same sincerity he saw hidden in her. "No you're not sorry. You're scared but not sorry."
That was what he saw in her eyes and no amount of cold neutrality could disguise that which was pinned to her very soul.
The beauty's eyes narrowed angrily to allay the sudden icy spear of fear in her heart. She was still captain and still did not care to be refuted, especially when such words roused such terro. "How dare you-"
"Yes I dare," Rumpel interposed courageously, his heart hammering wildly. "And it doesn't happen often and I probably will regret what I say, but please listen while I have the courage to say what I truly mean." Limping a step towards her, he let that thread of courage wind around and stitch the tapestry of his foreign words. "You're scared because you don't know why you did what you did. You're scared that I might not have wanted that myself. You're scared because you didn't think you were supposed to have any feeling in something that isn't there."
Eyes wide as blue coins, terror flashed over the beauty's features. Could he read what lay etched so neatly penned upon her hidden soul? "What are you talking about?" She backed away as he took a step. He couldn't possibly know….
"You know what I'm talking about." He stepped forward again. "I know about the dagger and the losses and the wishes. I know what everyone wants… even you."
Belle was almost hypnotized by his eyes. As she backed away he came forward until her back hit the door. She didn't try to escape further, too absorbed in the words that he spoke and the inherent tenderness that lay there.
Stopping inches from her, the spinner nervously raised a hand. His eyes followed his fingertips as he laid them on the right side of her chest. "This." He looked back up to her, his eyes filled with warmth. "Is that why you're so strict and cold to everyone, because there is nothing here?" He lay his hand flat over the place her heart should have been. "Is this why you're so afraid of what that kiss could mean, because even though it's not there you feel what I feel for you? Is this why you're afraid because even though nothing lays here you feel the twinge of some invisible heart and you don't know how or why?"
As his words died around them anything could have happened at that moment. She could have slain him on the spot for being so bold. She could have demanded how he knew.
He could of have blackmailed her for truth. He could have used her pliable soul flown free from the sarcophagus of dark secrets and molded her how he wished in that one intrepid moment.
Instead, with baited breath, they waited.
Scalding tears shimmering from her azure orbs, the beauty grasped his hand with hers. Nodding slowly, her bottom lip quivering, a sob erupted from her lips with the secret only two more had known. "Yes," she rasped truthfully. "All of it, yes."
She shouldn't have felt with that which was not there. But she did. By every deity on land or sea she did!
Leaning forward, her slender arms wrapped around his spindly body. Her head buried into the curve of his neck as she let the pain from the terrible secret and all that had made her that way flow against the man she might have… loved.